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Protein factories in the Cell

Jülich/Göttingen, 1 December 2016 – Proteins, the universal "workhorses" of all cells, are only functional when amino acids combine precisely according to their structural blueprint during production. Errors in protein production can have dire consequences and lead to serious illnesses such as cancer. The "protein factories" of the cell are called ribosomes. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, University of Göttingen, and Forschungszentrum Jülich have for the first time made visible with atomic precision how upon signal, ribosomes reliably insert the correct amino acid into proteins. Their findings have now been published in the renowned journal Nature. (DOI: 10.1038/nature20560)